Henry in the Pack 'N Play

We had a great afternoon with Henry yesterday. About 45 minutes after Henry had eaten, I decided to put Henry in his Pack 'N Play, which has a bassinet feature. We have been careful to keep Henry upright for at least 30 minutes after he eats. Even this measure often doesn't prevent his reflux from getting the better of him. For once, he didn't seem particularly hungry at the 45 minute mark. So I tempted fate and put him in the bassinet, which is flat. We are a little concerned that Henry has only had primarily two experiences...being held and being in the Danny Sling. I want Henry to have the chance to do normal things, like kick up his toes and wiggle around. Henry seemed to enjoy the Pack 'N Play. He kicked his legs around and stared at the objects over his ahead for about 40 minutes. This was a huge relief for us, because it means that we will be able to put him down now, without having to get someone to hold him at all times. We didn't have the monitor on him, so someone has to stay nearby. Nevertheless, we felt like yesterday was a big step for Henry.









The monitor did not work again last night. I reread the manual. Did everything I could. I ended up calling the company who put me through to one of their techs who was on-call. He didn't have a spare apnea monitor in his van, but he said he could drive into town and pick one up and bring it over. I said that we could wait until morning. We live on a dirt road in the boonies, and it would be really hard for someone to find our place in the dark. The nearest stop light is 3 miles away from our house. I said that we'd stay up with Henry, which is what we did. I slept from 12:30AM to 3AM. Jeff slept from 3:30AM to 6AM. Henry snoozed for the most part throughout the night.

I'm posting some pictures of the road that we live on, which may give our friends and family who haven't seen our house some sense of why I didn't force the nice tech guy to the house at midnight. These pictures are from the walk that I took with our dogs yesterday evening.








I gave Henry a massage this morning. It went well. He's still a little hesitant with the arms, but he's getting better. He also tolerated some tummy time this morning without breaking into tears, which was good. He managed to prop himself up on his elbows at one point, which surprised me. He didn't last long, but every little bit of tummy time exercise is good for him.

The tech guy came this morning and replaced the monitor and cable. I think that it was a faulty cable that was the problem.

Grandpa Kenski came at 9AM to hold Henry. Nurse Michael came around 11AM. No change in Henry's weight. He's still 6 lbs 4 ozs. He took Henry's pulse-ox. He was going to write it down as 95%, but I pointed out that it was 88% for a good deal of the time. Again, I'm not sure why everyone always wants to write down the rosiest picture of the situation. I advocate for taking the conservative approach (what is the worst case scenario here). I pointed out that if Henry is spending time in the high 80s, the pulmonologists need to know because they'd probably be less inclined to remove his oxygen support. Believe me, I really want Henry to get rid of the cannula. But if he needs it, then he needs it. And the high 80s, while not bad, are nothing to get excited about.

I wasn't feeling well this afternoon. My mom accompanied Jeff to Dr. Cosentino's office for the hernia surgery follow-up. The doctor said that there's still a little bit of fluid in the area, but that's normal. All in all, the area looks good. The appointment was for 2:30PM. My mom said that they were in the car by 2:33PM. I felt guilty about not going, but of the appointments to miss, I knew that he was going to be fine. His scars have healed quite well.

I'm off to school to teach my three hour research methods class. My mom is with Henry now while Jeff gets some work done.